"catch up on the latest tech and market news on the net as you eat"

That probably does describe a lot of my lunches. However, that is my choice. If an employer explicitly expected me to spend my lunches doing that I'd soon be an ex-employee.

I work at Susquehanna and I believe you may have incorrectly understood this to imply there is a pressure to stay at one's desk over lunch. In my experience, this is not at all the case and I head out over lunch fairly frequently.

Holy crap. And they can actually recruit?

Yeah, "lunch time, finally can get on and catch up with hackernews!"

Hey, I actually do that while eating my lunch. usually with reddit or HN on my phone.

Nerds don't need social interaction during lunch time right?

They probably forgot "So you grab a plate and head back to the basement to eat at your desk."

But is this time paid? Because I can see the downside to this, but I'm also thinking, well, at least I can go home an hour earlier.

Either that or eating there is just optional? It doesn't seem to explicitly say you have to eat their food and stay at work. Plus a lot of people do strange diets now days or have all sorts of allergies. It sounds to me from the last sentence is "we provide food, so if you want to stay here and eat at your desk you can."

software improvement group?

Software Improvement Group (SIG) = https://www.sig.eu

yes. that is why I asked. I had good experience with the Software Improvement Group and can't recall such tyranny.

Susquehanna International Group.

https://sig.com/